A merchant required an additional clerk and advertised for a
boy. The first boy that answered was ushered into a vacant
room, and told to sit in a particular chair and wait. Looking
around, he saw upon the floor, just by the chair, a one-dollar
bill, folded closely, as tho it had been inadvertently dropt. He
picked up the bill, and satisfying his conscience that “finding
is having,” even tho on another’s premises, he put it into his
pocket. Almost immediately the merchant came in, and after a
few questions, dismissed the boy as not satisfactory. The next
boy was seated in the same chair, and he also saw a one-dollar
bill lying in the same manner beside him; but he picked it up
and laid it on the table. The merchant entered, and after some
questions, pointed to the bill and asked where it came from.
The boy said he saw it on the floor and put it where it would
be safe. The merchant said, “As it did not appear to belong to
any one, why did you not keep it?” The boy replied, “Because it
did not belong to me.” “My boy,” said the merchant, “you have
chosen the road that inevitably leads to business success. The
boy before you chose the wrong one. But how did you learn that
this was the right path?” The boy answered, “My mother made me
promise never, under any circumstances, to take what did not
belong to me; and I promised.” Later in life this boy became
Secretary of the Treasury.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character
Lessons.”
(1432)
=Honesty, Simulated=--See PRETENSE OF VIRTUE.